Search & Gather

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A digital agency that grows businesses

Search & Gather is a digital marketing agency that works with startups and SMBs to develop a plan to achieve measurable results from their digital advertising. This involves getting clients on the most relevant networks, with accurate audience targeting, engaging creative and precise tracking for all campaigns.

Search & Gather is subcontracted to deliver digital marketing services for an events company. They do SEM, run ads on various platforms, and modify their approach based on changing demographics and locations.

The Reviewer

2-10 Employees

Ontario, Canada

Marcio Santos

Founder & Online Marketing Consultant, Nerd Digital

Verified

the reviewer

Founder & Online Marketing Consultant, Nerd Digital

Marcio Santos

Marketing and Advertising

2-10 Employees

Ontario, Canada

Phone Interview

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone.

Verified

5.0

Quality:

5.0

Schedule:

5.0

Cost:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the review

“They care about completing the job and doing it well.”

Aug 16, 2019

The Review

Feedback summary:

Search & Gather has accomplished several crucial objectives, including increasing ticket sales, driving ROI, and leading a transition from traditional to digital marketing. The team excels at managing expectations by executing quick turnaround times and taking scope changes in stride.

the review

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Nerd Digital, an agency that specializes in SEO and analytics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Search & Gather?

Our main objective for all of our clients is to increase ticket sales. One of our clients runs a series of events across the U.S. and Canada, and they needed help targeting certain demographics and driving ticket sales in specific locations. They also wanted to move away from more traditional marketing, like print, to digital.

We subcontracted our client’s digital marketing needs to Search & Gather. Although my company specializes in SEO, we didn’t have the expertise or agility to deliver the scope of services that our client required. They also made a lot of change requests and wanted to be on several platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our client’s target demographics have varied over the past three years, and Search & Gather has tailored their digital marketing approach accordingly. They do SEO and run ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google. The team also helps with influencer marketing.

I found them through my network. When my client reached out to me for SEO work, I passed this work on to Search & Gather. I already had a trusting relationship with Drew, so I decided to give them a try.

How much have you invested with them?

Our account management fees have varied between $1,000–$5,900 CAD (approximately $750–$4,450 USD). We started with a small contract of less than $2,000 CAD (approximately $1,500 USD) for a show in Boston. Since then, the budgets have grown. We’ve had contracts for more than $30,000 CAD (approximately $22,600 USD) for a single show. We’re planning to do a bigger contract this month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Search & Gather in October 2017, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Based on previous reports and Google Ads Manager, Search & Gather has driven a 20–100% ROI. Despite the changing requirements and wide-ranging scope of our client’s work, Search & Gather has delivered on everything they’ve wanted. They’ve led the transition from traditional to digital marketing.

How did Search & Gather perform from a project management standpoint?

We use email, phone, and WhatsApp to communicate with Search & Gather, and it’s been exceptional. Our client’s team is very large, and their internal communications are complicated because they don’t use any type of cloud service to manage their documents. Instead, all of their talent is on a single Excel sheet, which makes it difficult to begin the process of organizing a new show. If we need to make a change to the show, we must contact around twenty people. Our client’s email threads are often long and disorganized. Search & Gather has done an exceptional job navigating this tough contract.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have short turnaround times for getting our ads live, and these ads often undergo a lot of changes. For instance, if a celebrity cannot attend a show due to unforeseen circumstances, the show’s organizer needs to replace the person and run different ad campaigns. We may know three weeks or just twenty minutes in advance. Search & Gather has been super flexible and makes these changes quickly, which isn’t something we’ve been able to find anywhere else.

Search & Gather has also gone above and beyond with influencer marketing. Our client had an agreement with an influencer marketing agency, but they didn’t do a great job managing the relationship once the deal was brokered. Search & Gather stepped in to make sure that everything was executed and delivered. I cannot overstate the value of that. They care about completing the job and doing it well.

Our client wanted to experiment with different ways of advertising on Facebook, such as boosting posts instead of just running ads through Ads Manager. Search & Gather enabled our client to do so, even though we didn’t achieve the results we were looking for.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they’re doing as well as they can be with this client. They’ve made recommendations and requests, but the client is just a bit slow to adapt.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I would advise leaning on them. They’re smart and responsible, so clients shouldn’t be afraid to go to Search & Gather to delegate how things are going to get done. Give them a goal, and let them figure out how to do it. Don’t tell them that you want Instagram or something else; allow them to understand who you’re targeting and what you have that’s special, and they’ll do the rest.

Search & Gather spearheaded a full SEM and digital advertising overhaul, taking charge of all online strategy. They continue to improve the site’s presence on search engines and social media.

The Reviewer

2-9 Employees

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Partner, Entertainment Agency

Verified

the reviewer

Partner, Entertainment Agency

Event Services

2-9 Employees

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Phone Interview

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone.

Verified

5.0

Quality:

4.5

Schedule:

5.0

Cost:

4.5

Willing to refer:

5.0

the review

“Their friendly, casual company culture perfectly matches our style.”

Aug 13, 2019

The Review

Feedback summary:

The ongoing implementations are increasing online conversions, creating a consistent lead flow. Their work has also attracted the attention of large organizations. The team stays on top of the project, communicating proactively and using critical thinking to develop unique strategies.

the review

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a partner at an entertainment agency focused on speakers. We also do brand campaigns and celebrity endorsements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Search & Gather?

We wanted to improve our online presence, primarily on Google. We’d been in the industry for a long time, but we didn’t have a ton of experience with optimizing websites. Search & Gather came in to address that challenge.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They delivered digital advertising and full SEM services to our company. We were looking to drive traffic and leads toward our site, so Search & Gather has optimized our site on Google and Bing. They’ve also tested some strategy on Facebook and LinkedIn, experimenting to see what takes and what doesn’t.

What is the team composition?

I worked primarily with Michael (Digital Designer, Search & Gather) and Doug (Co-Founder & Creative Director, Search & Gather) on the project, but there were definitely others on their team working on it too.

How did you come to work with Search & Gather?

Doug and I previously worked in the same building. We reconnected at a tech industry event, and I brought the project up. He showed interest, so I reached out to them feeling confident in their capabilities and price point. We also appreciated their apparent willingness to work hard on our behalf.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend between $1,200–$1,500 with them every month.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in November 2017, and the work is ongoing. They’re our go-to partner in this area of work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve seen great lead flow as a result of their work. Our online presence has attracted the attention of high-level organizations that otherwise would be very difficult to engage with. We’ve been able to drive a very consistent flow of work to our company through the SEM implementations, as opposed to the scattered leads we got before. That’s the most significant benefit.

How did Search & Gather perform from a project management standpoint?

Using email and monthly catch-up meetings to review trends and potential changes, the project has run very well. Their team turns in regular reports while maintaining a responsive, supportive professional relationship with us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their friendly, casual company culture perfectly matches our style. They’re realistic, fun to work with, and always get things done according to plan.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We feel like we’re in a good place with them because they're always advancing and trying out new ideas.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Like any business relationship, it’s important to build a strong foundation to rely on with partners. Additionally, it's helpful to stay in their line of sight, keeping them interested and engaged in helping your business grow.

Search & Gather ran several advertising campaigns for a software company, expanding and maximizing PPC advertisement. They scaled up use of Google Adwords and Facebook and continue to test other channels.

The Reviewer

51-200 Employees

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Savannah Copland

Senior Manager, HiMama Inc.

Verified

the reviewer

Senior Manager, HiMama Inc.

Savannah Copland

Software

51-200 Employees

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Phone Interview

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone.

Verified

5.0

Quality:

5.0

Schedule:

4.5

Cost:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the review

“They’ve been really helpful in giving us the resources that we need to continue to scale.”

Jul 29, 2019

The Review

Feedback summary:

The advertising campaigns run by Search & Gather have led to dramatic increases in ad clicks. Their team is flexible in increasing involvement as their partner grows, continuing to innovate new strategies and channels for advertisements beyond what has already been established.

the review

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior manager at HiMama. HiMama is a software service B2B company that makes software for childcare centers to use to manage the center and communicate with families. I’ve been at the company for around three years now and manage all of our inbound lead generation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Search & Gather?

We were looking to expand our paid advertising efforts. Our company was really just getting started with advertising on Google Adwords and Facebook, and we wanted to see whether or not we could scale that up to be a bigger part of our inbound lead generation strategy more generally.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Search & Gather focus on scaling up a few of our paid channels; Google Adwords, Bing, and Facebook are the main focuses. They have also helped us get into some more experimental PPC channels, so over time, we’ve tested ads on LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and a few others as well. Essentially, we’re hoping to allow them to help us with our strategy and management of all our paid channels going forward.

What is the team composition?

We work with an analyst and another person who is an analyst but serves in a directorial role as well.

How did you come to work with Search & Gather?

They came pretty highly recommended to us from another marketing director in our industry.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Search & Gather in March 2018 and are continuing to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The best evidence to show from the project has really been our growth rate. Our ad spending over the course of our work with them has increased 7–10 times over. We have a target cost-per-lead that we aim for and we’ve been able to stay pretty close to that number throughout the year, which has been a really big deliverable for them.

We’re now a venture-backed startup as well, and as such are trying to go through a period of fairly rapid growth. A big part of that is being able to scale these channels while maintaining a positive return on our spending, and we’ve been able to do that successfully with Search & Gather.

How did Search & Gather perform from a project management standpoint?

We pretty quickly fell into a cadence of holding half-hour meetings once a week, and then longer planning sessions once a quarter that usually lasts a couple of hours. They come into our office and we’ll work together on what our priorities are for the next couple of months.

There’s quite a bit of communication via email, including weekly reports from them with all our metrics and campaign performance for the week. We also usually include some correspondence with our marketing operations team to ensure we’re linking everything up correctly between our sales team and our marketing software.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was really impressed in the first place that they were willing to scale with us over the course of the process. In the beginning, we didn’t have a lot of ad spending and there was a lot of discovery to be done in terms of how to position ourselves through these different paid channels. They’ve been really helpful in giving us the resources that we need to continue to scale.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think as a startup, creative talent was much harder for us to come by and we could have used a little bit more support on that side, but they’ve hired a lot more folks into their team to help with creative elements since then, so they’ve sort of tackled that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would tell other startups that it was really valuable for us to start working with them as an agency pretty early on in our existence because it saved us a lot of time on figuring out the basics of how to scale up our paid channels.

Search & Gather manages paid advertising campaigns for different initiatives on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. They also create and optimize landing pages as needed.

The Reviewer

Toronto, Canada

Co-founder, Financial Services Company

Verified

the reviewer

Co-founder, Financial Services Company

Financial Services

Toronto, Canada

Phone Interview

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone.

Verified

5.0

Quality:

5.0

Schedule:

5.0

Cost:

5.0

Willing to refer:

5.0

the review

“In addition to driving down our CPA and increasing conversions, they've also been very proactive...”

Jul 23, 2019

The Review

Feedback summary:

Search & Gather's digital ad campaigns have successfully increased conversion rates, optimized landing pages, and decreased cost per acquisition. In addition to their overall performance, they're also great to work with overall–proactive and responsive in communication.

We mostly work with Doug (Creative Director and Co-founder, Search & Gather) and Amanda (Digital Strategist, Search & Gather), but also had some initial conversations with Drew (Operations Director and Founder, Search & Gather).

How did you come to work with Search & Gather?

They were recommended to us by one of their previous clients and we were very impressed by their overall knowledge in the digital space.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested between $200,000–$1 million thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since around November 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Amanda has been great about managing campaigns. She's very proactive and responsive overall, staying in regular contact with us each week by phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their overall performance and ability to manage client relationships sets them apart. In addition to driving down our CPA and increasing conversions, they've also been very proactive about pursuing next steps, rather than waiting for us to reach out.